SM parents in school-parent volunteer

• Who: Amy, Classmates, Parent volunteer
• Location: Classroom
• Environment: Normal classroom environment. They are all learning about Chinese New Year. Amy is talking in Chinese for them and helping them learn.
• Worry Level: 2
• Purpose: Parents can come into school during various times and help Amy talk and feel more comfortable in front of her class
• What is Happening : Mom is presenting to Amy’s classmates about the Year of the Horse.
• What Parents can do: go to school, Homeroom Parents, Classroom Parents,  PTO, Lunchroom Volunteer, Field Trip Party Helper, Movie Night, Ice Cream Night Helper, Art Gallery Presenter, Career Day Speaker
• What time they can do it: after drop off but before school starts, lunch, recess, after school but before bus pick up – after school, don’t just leave, instead play a game in the corner of the classroom and invite other kids to play if they are still waiting, after school program

Strategy and Scene

• Create opportunities to talk, Plan the conversation , Ask Amy questions
• Parent comes into class to share Chinese New Year culture with class
• Amy and parent have already planned the conversation and practiced what they will say
• Amy helps show different objects to the class, can help translate different words, and can answer any classmates’ questions
• Show Amy’s talents, make her feel confident  - Amy speaks Chinese to the other students, and is proud to show her talent.
• It was almost Chinese New Year, the year of Horse. In order to create an opportunity for Amy to talk in school, Amy’s mom contacted her homeroom teacher and volunteered to share some knowledge about Chinese New Year traditions with the class.

One Friday afternoon, Amy’s mom arrived at Amy’s class as scheduled. Amy’s expression relaxed a little once she saw her mom walk into the classroom. Amy walked up to the front of the classroom by following her mom, and got ready for their presentation about the year of the Horse. Facing curious looks of all of her classmates, Amy became nervous. Her hands involuntarily held the corner of her shirt. She glanced at her mom, and her mom gave her an encouraging look. While Amy’s mom was telling the story, Amy held up relevant pictures to show her classmates, gave some live demonstrations or sometimes took relevant models to her classmates to see. To make Amy feel comfortable in front of her classmates, Amy and her mom had practiced this activity for a dozen times at home and known quite well what they would present. Once in a while, her mom pretended to forget what to say, and Amy would pick up the line and introduce quietly, “Happy Chinese new year! It is the year of the Horse…” Sometimes, Amy’s mom engaged her in the talk and had Amy teach some simple Chinese characters to her classmates. Gradually, Amy became more and more relaxed and her voice became louder and louder. In warm applause received from her classmates, Amy and her mom successfully finished their presentation. In the following section for questions, with the help of her mom, Amy answered every question her classmates asked about the Chinese new year. As they ended this activity, Amy was totally relaxed.

By conducting this activity with her mom, Amy got an opportunity of showing her bilingual talent, and made her classmate learn her background.  This activity helped Amy build her confidence to speak in front of her classmates.

Hint: Parents should try to create opportunities for SM children to talk; plan the conversation ahead; bring the child into a conversation by asking the child questions. SM children can benefit if Parents do volunteer works in school, like homeroom helper, PTO participation, Lunchroom volunteer, field trip party helper, movie night helper, Ice Cream Night Helper, Art Gallery Presenter and Career Day Speaker, etc.  Parents can try to create opportunities for SM children to communicate with other kids in school in the morning before class begins, at lunch and recess times, and after school before the school bus leaves or when after school programs are over.

作者俊華,艾米媽 。 如有需要，加微信：junwang08837，艾米媽邀你進 “選擇性緘默症家長分享群”。

選擇性緘默症包括語言恐 Speech Phobia，感知障礙 Sensory Disorder, 社交恐懼 Social Anxiety 。 關鍵詞： 孩子為什麽不說話，孩子在外麵不說話，孩子不敢說話，和陌生人不說話，社交恐懼，孩子在幼兒園和學校不說話，害羞，敏感，膽子小，懦弱，怕生，內向，沒自信，固執，不敢吃飯，不敢去廁所，不敢和小朋友玩，，在家講話，出門不講話。隻和爸爸媽媽說話， 不敢參加集體活動。